are much more artistic and vibrant now than the cinema. |
But ignoring TV is like trying to ignore a 2-ton elephant. |
disproportionately the number of crime victims in movies and television. |
For a long time, no one ever wanted to admit that television was anything but this horrible, horrible contagion in society. |
For a long time, we only asked questions such as, 'Does TV make kids stupid? Does TV make kids violent?' So the field was understudied. |
I understand the networks' position, |
Many shows this season ... had gruesome shots of women being brutalized and terrorized in very graphic and extended ways, |
People were talking about virtual reality, and some were saying one day we will download our consciousness and live forever in computers. And it struck me as just a load of crap. I wondered why we tell ourselves these fantastic stories, and I found it has been happening since the telegraph. |
Sadistic is the only word to use for some of these shows. |
The networks have gotten into trouble when trying to show nudity, so the other avenue to get viewers is to increase the violence. |
The study resonated because I was writing at a time when people were making amazing predictions about new technologies, such as computers -- saying they could save us from everything, |
They are always terrorized and chased by sadists and psychos, |
TV had always been the forbidden bad fruit in academia, |
You see people taking storytelling more seriously, ... Shows like 'Lost' and '24' have complex narratives you couldn't think about doing in film. |